Racing 500 miles around a smooth paved oval? Kid stuff. The world's longest rally races have stretched for thousands of miles across continents, through deserts, and over mountains.

2000: Around the World in 80 Days Rally

2000: Around the World in 80 Days Rally

Total Distance: 18,000 miles

Last month, 48 teams packed in street-legal cars from old Datsuns to new Jeep Wranglers left London for a 29-day, 8600-mile time-trial rally to Cape Town. The London to Cape Town World Cup Rally is one of a series of nonprofessional long-distance endurance rallies that has included 19 events since 1997. The longest of these was the 2000 Around the World in 80 Days rally: The race covered 18,000 miles, had 42 entries, and required nearly three months to drive. The cars were airlifted only twice, from Beijing to Alaska and then from New York to Marrakesh.

1977: Singapore Airlines London to Sydney Rally

1977: Singapore Airlines London to Sydney Rally

Total Distance: 17,500 miles

In 1968, the London Daily Express and Daily Telegraph newspapers sponsored a marathon rally of 7000 miles from London to Sydney. The insane race stirred up some heroic stories of resourcefulness for the papers, and it spawned a series of intercontinental rallies. One of these was a rally from London to Mexico called the World Cup Rally, which coincided with the soccer championship in Mexico City that year. Another was the 1974 London-Sahara-Munich rally. But the ultimate race in this series was the second running of London to Sydney, which covered 17,500 miles. Rally driver Andrew Cowan won the marathon race in a Mercedes 280E. Vintage re-creations of the 1977 rally have been held on several occasions since.